Sri Lanka and Belarus moved on Friday to widen their economic engagement at a Business Round Table in Minsk hosted by the Belarus National Export Promotion Centre, focusing on bilateral trade, investment and tourism cooperation.
Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath, who is leading a Sri Lankan delegation on a visit to Belarus, said the discussions centred on expanding two-way commerce and on identifying joint-venture opportunities in priority sectors.
Belarus Deputy Minister of Industry Leonid Ryzhkovchits and Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Aleksandr Yakovchits attended the talks alongside a business delegation that included the National Tourism Agency, national carrier Belavia and leading travel agencies. Sri Lankan entrepreneurs from the pharmaceutical, education and tourism sectors took part on the visiting side, the Foreign Ministry said.
Friday’s commercial engagement extends a busy diplomatic week in Minsk. On Thursday, Sri Lanka and Belarus signed a bilateral Air Services Agreement and accompanying memoranda covering aviation, education and health-sector cooperation. The visit opened on Monday with Herath’s call on Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko, a meeting that produced commitments to deepen trade ties and to advance an Eastern European track of Sri Lanka’s outbound tourism market.
The trade dimension is small but expanding. Belarus is keen to position itself as a processing hub for Sri Lankan gems, while Sri Lanka is looking to diversify imports of fertiliser, mechanical engineering goods and agricultural machinery — areas in which Belarusian state firms compete on price with Western suppliers. Belavia is exploring direct connectivity to Colombo, which would open a new long-haul Eastern European tourism corridor at a time when Sri Lankan tourism is being pushed off its earlier projections by Middle East shipping disruption.
Source: Newswire — Sri Lanka, Belarus explore new trade and tourism partnerships.
